7. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact that its council tax freeze policy will have on households in the Midlothian North and Musselburgh constituency. (S6O-02763)

The total funding for local government and the significant associated savings for taxpayers for 2024-25 will form part of the detail of the implementation of the council tax freeze, which will be agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities over the coming weeks.

The freeze will mean that every Scottish household will continue to benefit from cheaper council tax bills. If council tax in England increased by 3 per cent next year, for example, it would see the average band D property in England pay over £700 more on average than a band D property in Scotland, following our freeze.

It is very welcome that the Scottish National Party Scottish Government is helping households across Scotland save hundreds of pounds with the council tax freeze, putting money in people’s pockets when they need it most.

Meanwhile, apparently, East Lothian’s Labour council leader recently threatened to raise council tax by 32 per cent. That would hammer hard-pressed families across my constituency, right in the midst of a cost of living crisis. Will the minister join me in calling on the Labour Party to condemn those tax hike plans and to admit whether it has been planning similar council tax rises across Scotland?

We are absolutely committed to constructive engagement with our partners in local government to deliver a council tax freeze that will benefit every part of Scotland. It is for other parties to set out their position—I admit that I struggle to keep up with other parties’ positions, as they seem to change on a weekly basis—but we are absolutely committed to working with our local government partners to deliver a council tax freeze that will benefit every single household in Scotland.

The member is right to question how a council tax freeze will affect households in Midlothian North and Musselburgh, but is it not the case that it will also affect households across Scotland, including my West Scotland region, when it comes to the delivery of public services? Can the minister confirm the expected cost of the council tax freeze and, more crucially, where the money will come from?

As I set out in my earlier responses to Mr Beattie, we are committed to constructive engagement with COSLA to deliver a fully funded council tax freeze that will benefit households in the member’s constituency and, indeed, households across Scotland.

Does the minister recognise that a lot of local services are buckling under the financial pressure? Without getting into the party politics of the matter, is he intending to sit down with local government and look seriously at what can be done to protect services for the most vulnerable people in our communities?

I thank Mr Rowley for his question and for the tone of it. We are committed not only to delivering, through partnership and agreement with local government, a fully funded council tax freeze, but to ensuring, through our wider commitments and the Verity house agreement, that we can provide sustainable public services for all people in Scotland, and that we deliver the person-centred services that we all want to see.